Second annual Crime and Punishment story event - the 2024 Story Event Official Support Thread

[-Ripley-]

My entry will be over 42,000 words. Probably 12 Lit. pages.

I’m generally not, but my longest is 13 and this will be about double.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've not done well at finishing any stories recently, so I've started one for this event to add to the draft collection. Police interview snark should be fun to write.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

My latest story will be done, probably early, so I'll just have to hold off publishing it until the window opens. Maybe I'll even get my Christmas story done in time.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I seem to have written a story for this. 10k words, mainly police procedural.

Would appreciate a beta reader, especially a non-Brit who could tell me if the slang and jargon are too incomprehensible? It's Gay Male, though apart from references to sex having happened and a short scene near the end, there's not really detailed sex in it.

I may get back to some of those other drafts,now...

 

[MillieDynamite]

Okay, I have put my story in but have saved it as a draft. It's 15,000+ words and a prequel to last year's event entry, Vengeance is Mine. It is the first story in chronological order in this series, but the second one has not been published. Vengeance Is Its Own Reward should go live on September 2nd if I can remember to put it up for review around the end of the month. There isn't much sex in the story and what's there isn't graphic. I published this earlier this year for sales. It never really took off, but hopefully, it will at some point.

I've never put Vengeance Is Its Own Reward on Amazon as the first story got banned there. After I removed the offending paragraph and resubmitted it, they rejected it because it had the same title. It's a big no-no, Nanette, not to change the title. So, either I need to add the word "Redux" to the title and publish both, or just put the second (first in time) story up without the other one.

Shit, I hate Amazon sometimes.

 

[Portly_Penguin]

Oo, this seems interesting. I write a lot of crime-based stuff away from erotica so combining the two could make for an interesting experiment...

Any tips for someone who's never entered one of these before?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Oo, this seems interesting. I write a lot of crime-based stuff away from erotica so combining the two could make for an interesting experiment...

Any tips for someone who's never entered one of these before?

Give yourself more time. You've left your start pretty late, so the best tip might be, don't get too ambitious.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It doesn't have to have (have to have what an odd thing to write) any erotica in the story.

Oo, this seems interesting. I write a lot of crime-based stuff away from erotica so combining the two could make for an interesting experiment...

Any tips for someone who's never entered one of these before?

 

[MyBareTorso]

Back to prison for this one after my recent Hammered Challenge entry...I guess that makes me a recidivist.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

My entry has grown to the longest story I have written to date. I've already trimmed out enough to make a good start on the next story.

 

[Portly_Penguin]

Give yourself more time. You've left your start pretty late, so the best tip might be, don't get too ambitious.

Ambitious is not a word anyone would ever associate with me If I get the right idea, I could get a first draft thing done and submitted. I'd be entering for fun - the chances of anything doing well would be impossible.

It doesn't have to have (have to have what an odd thing to write) any erotica in the story.

True, true, but my erotica does need some work

 

[MillieDynamite]

I work on my erotica all the time. Why be married if you aren't going to practice erotica? Oh, wait, you mean writing about it? Oh, that's different.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've actually completed the story (many thanks to Fatdog for beta reading), but I still don't have a title.

If it was just a UK audience, I could use
'For the Benefit of the DIR' and it be recognised as a Line of Duty quote, or at least referring to a police interview.

'Evening at the Cop Shop, Again' - no idea if the Yank contingent would understand, and I dont want to suggest shenanigans in cells. It's basically a police procedural from the arrestee's POV.

The description summarises it pretty well: 'Adrian's arrested for getting fucked in public.'

Ideas?

 

[TheLobster]

• Jail Time for Fun Time
• Indecent Enclosure
• Slammed Goes to a Slammer
• Arrested Debauchment

…aaaaand I think I ran through my quota of bad puns for the day.

 

[Fatdog25]

I've actually completed the story (many thanks to Fatdog for beta reading), but I still don't have a title.

If it was just a UK audience, I could use
'For the Benefit of the DIR' and it be recognised as a Line of Duty quote, or at least referring to a police interview.

'Evening at the Cop Shop, Again' - no idea if the Yank contingent would understand, and I dont want to suggest shenanigans in cells. It's basically a police procedural from the arrestee's POV.

The description summarises it pretty well: 'Adrian's arrested for getting fucked in public.'

Ideas?

You're very welcome, KQ.

As for a title suggestion, maybe [insert drum roll]:

"Caught With My Pants Down".

 

[Kumquatqueen]

You're very welcome, KQ.

As for a title suggestion, maybe [insert drum roll]:

"Caught With My Pants Down".

It's a great title, as are Lobster's, but I don't want to imply there's sex in the cop shop. Disappointed readers have no fury...

I'm thinking "Embarrassing Explanations"?

 

[Fatdog25]

It's a great title, as are Lobster's, but I don't want to imply there's sex in the cop shop. Disappointed readers have no fury...

I'm thinking "Embarrassing Explanations"?

"Adrian's Embarrassing Interrogation" or possibly something simple and cryptic, like "The Set-Up"

 

[TheLobster]

I'm thinking "Embarrassing Explanations"?

I always appreciate any added alliterative appeal.

 

[OffNSFW]

Pardon me if this is a stupid/oft-answered question, but what are the differences between this and the Mickey Spillane contest? I would have assumed it would be an homage to Russian literature, but the description makes it sound more like hardboiled crime fiction.

 

[TheLobster]

I believe the main difference is that there is no particular style of prose prescribed. But there’s a huge overlap between the two; I’d go as far as saying that all Spillane entries would fit here.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In the Spillane event, I wrote a story with a female private detective for the two (so far) Crime and Punishment, I write about a DDA in Los Angeles that takes the punishment into her own hands. My period is prior to Mickey Spillane's writing time, and I sort of shoot for a cross between Ramond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett; Crime and Punishment is just my plain Jane writing style.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Pardon me if this is a stupid/oft-answered question, but what are the differences between this and the Mickey Spillane contest? I would have assumed it would be an homage to Russian literature, but the description makes it sound more like hardboiled crime fiction.

Yeah, I see them as pretty similar... I'm submitting hard-boiled prison stories for both. The major distinction I see is that the Hammered Challenge is perhaps more about style, and also prompts the specific fore fronting of sex and violence...

 

[MillieDynamite]

Mickey Spillane's Event is to write in the Film Noir style, which was based on the fiction writing styles of Ramond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, and others, including Mickey Spillane, who carried on that style of literature. Crime and Punishment is about crime fiction in general and not specific to the dark and realistic Noir type of fiction.

Yeah, I see them as pretty similar... I'm submitting hard-boiled prison stories for both. The major distinction I see is that the Hammered Challenge is perhaps more about style, and also prompts the specific fore fronting of sex and violence...

 

[MyBareTorso]

Mickey Spillane's Event is to write in the Film Noir style, which was based on the fiction writing styles of Ramond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, and others, including Mickey Spillane, who carried on that style of literature. Crime and Punishment is about crime fiction in general and not specific to the dark and realistic Noir type of fiction.

Yes, certainly...

 

[MillieDynamite]

Also, you can think of Mickey Spillane's event as hard-boiled detective fiction and Crime and Punishment as being about the nuts and bolts of the Judiciary stories more of a procedural approach...